Hines, Rev. Harvey Kimball Hines. An Illustrated History of the State of Washington. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1893. pp. 925-927
(979.7 H 5891, WSHS, Tacoma, WA)
Warren J Bowman, an early settler of Washington and a prominent citizen of Pierce county, was born near the town of Washington, Peoria county, Illinois November 25th, 1837, son of John C. and Mary (Mounts) Bowman.
John C. Bowman, born in Richmond, Virginia, April 26, 1809, was a descendant of one of the early families of the Old Dominion. He was married June 22, 1835, and died June 14, 1839. His wife, the mother of our subject was born near Peoria, Illinois, the daughter of pioneer settlers of that place. After Mr. Bowman's death, she married for her second husband Taylor A. Rue. Mr. Rue was born in Ohio, went from there to Indiana, and later removed to Illinois, where he met and married Mrs. Bowman, their marriage occurring May 9, 1841. In 1842 the family removed into the city of Peoria, where they resided until March, 1850, and at that date they started with horse teams for Astoria, Oregon. They crossed the Mississippi river at Burlington, the Missouri at St. Joseph, thence proceeded via Forts Kearney, Laramie, and Hall, crossed the Rocky mountains at South pass, the Bear river at Soda Springs, on to Fort Dalles, where they stopped for a short time, thence on to Portland, and about October 24, reached the mouth of the Cowlitz river, where they settled. December 25, 1852, the mother died. Mr. Rue survived her many years, and became quite prominent in the local affairs of the new country in which he had settled. He held several offices in Cowlitz county, and was one of the Commissioners of Washington Territory, appointed by the Governor. He died on the old donation claim, near Freeport, September 10, 1880.
Warren J. Bowman, whose name heads this article, was reared to manhood at the old homestead on the Cowlitz, and besides the education he received in the schools of the neighborhood, he also had the advantage of training under Prof. Kingley at the Portland Academy. The original donation claim above referred to was increased by subsequent purchase until the ranch comprised 800 acres, it being utilized as both a grain and stock ranch. Here Mr. Bowman continued until 1869, when he went to Olympia and turned his attention to mercantile pursuits, where he remained two years. When the Northern Pacific Railroad was about to establish its terminus at Tacoma he came into Pierce county and located on the Puyallup reservation. he was offered the agency by General Milroy, superintendent of Indian affairs, but declined, preferring to engage in the mercantile business, which he did on the Puyallup river, near Puyallup. From that he turned his attention to the raising of hops, and in 1885 located on his present ranch, which was then covered with timber, and which he owned for two years before moving to it. Of the 145 acres in his ranch, 100 acres are now cleared and twenty acres are in hops. Ten acres are devoted to orchard purposes, the fruits comprising apples, pears, plums, prunes, cherries, etc.
Mr. Bowman was married in Freeport, Cowlitz county, January 24, 1874, to Miss Olive E. Stone, a native of Freeport, Indiana, and daughter of Nathaniel and Emeline (Klink) Stone. Her father was born in the Green mountains of Vermont, June 12, 1815, and came of an old Vermont family, of Welch origin. Her mother was from New York, and was of German extraction on the paternal side. Her parents lived in Indiana for several years, and in 1848 crossed the plains with their family to this coast, making the journey by ox-teams. They remained in Portland during the winter of 1848-49, went to Oregon City in the spring, and later in the same year located at the mouth of the Cowlitz river, where they took up a donation claim. Mr. Stone founded the town of Freeport, and named it after Freeport, Indiana, where Mrs. Bowman was born. He was a prominent man, served as County Treasurer, and in 1860-61 was a member of the Territorial legislature. In politics he was first a Whig and afte! rward a Republican and took an active part in public affairs. He built the steamer Rescue, which ran between Portland and Freeport for some time, in this way doing an extensive transportation business and also carrying the mails. After an illness of six months he died in November 1876, aged sixty-one years. His widow, now residing near Yakima, Yakima county, was seventy four years old on February 14, 1893.
Mrs. Bowman was educated at Freeport and at Salem University, having attended college two years. She taught school at Freeport several terms, at Oak Point, at Knappton, opposite Astoria, and at St. helen, Oregon. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Bowman were five in number, one of whom-Clyde- is deceased. Those living are: Mary Emeline, Edna Olive, Ina Eliza, and Warren.
Mr. Bowman was one of the organizers of the Farmers' Insurance Company, of Seattle, was its first vice-president, and still continues in that capacity. He was also one of the organizers of the Farmers Bank of Puyallup, of which he was offered the presidency, but declined; was then elected vice-president. When the bank was consolidated with that of Stewart & Masterson into the Bank of Puyallup, he became the vice president of the new organization. He was also elected president of the Cannery Company that was organized for handling the fruit of this region. he was president of the organization of fruit growers, from which sprang the Western Washington Exposition at Tacoma. Henry Bucey succeeded him in that office.
A resident of the Northwest from his early youth, Mr. Bowman is familiar with every phase of life on this coast, from the pioneer days up to the present time, and during all these years he has acted well his part in advancing the best interests of the community in which he lives. He is a veteran of the Indian war of 1855-56, having enlisted when he was sixteen. He was mustered into service at vancouver, furnishing his own horse and rifle. He was in Company A, Washington Mounted Volunteers, under Captain William R. Strong, and his service covered a period of six months, a portion of which time he was engaged in scouting between The Dalles and the Walla Walla country. Being at The Dalles when the river began to freeze, they were ordered back to Vancouver, and went home on the ice. The next spring he volunteered to go back, but the steamer failed twice to call for them when they were mustered ready to go, and after that his father would not let him leave, fearing ill luck.
He has never held political office but once, and then served as Auditor and Assessor of Cowlitz. county.
Many and great are the changes that have come under his observation. Arriving in Portland early in October, 1850, when it was a mere hamlet of scattered huts, he has seen it grow into populous city. Settling north of the Columbia river in the same year, in what was then Oregon, he has seen the vast territory segregated and two great States formed therefrom and admitted into the union; the counties embracing areas of the extent of some nations have been divided and subdivided; the lonely cabin and little clearing of the hardy pioneer, when everyone in the country was known to everyone else, have given place to populous communities thronged with strangers. The cedar canoe with its crew of painted Indians and the winding trail laboriously threaded by the train of patient ponies have been superseded by the magnificent steamer and the modern iron horse, drawing long trains of palatial passenger coaches and wealth laden freight cars, and now the teeming multitude has met the tide of the mighty Pacific and there is no more "Westward ho!" Mr. Bowman is now a member of the Historical Society of Washington, and of the Western Washington Pioneer Association, and will assist in perpetuating their early history.
Return to Warren J. Bowman main page
Submitted by: Dennis Larsen on 27 Mar 2005.